Warning: Lengthy post as I am having a few issues and could use some thoughtful advice.
Boat is a 1999 sea pro 1700cc, 60hp suzuki 4stroke.
I had minor issues with the battery making good contact with wire terminals in the past. I think it’s just corrosion, but my starter gets weak occasionally, which is remedied by retightening the wingnut on the battery terminals, or scraping the wire terminals with a knife etc. Never been too big of an issue.
Last few trips out, things have been super sketcky. Ignition gets weak, check it, battery terminals were burning up- literally melting the rubber insulation on both large and small cables. starter went down again, terminals too hot to touch. not fun. What is going on here? There was a good bit of water in the bilge, splashing around. I got shocked i think just from wet hands. but 2 trips now ive noticed battery was super hot.
This same trip (bad things seem to come in three’s), fuel guage stopped working, the switches controlling bilge and lights (all my electronics) went down, and one of the girls I was with stepped on my ff transducer climbing back into the boat, which then disappeared into the depths of the folly river. (humminbird 580). it was one of those murphys law boat trips. so any advice on fixing that would be appreciated too.
i have owned this boat three years, and in the past two months i have had more issues and problems than the other 36 combined. (ff being warrantied second time, trailer needs work$, throttle cables way stuck need replacing, need service, new ignition switch, trim switch). i am just getting bombarded with issues and have to pick my battles right now with this modest $5k boat. /blog thanks for letting me vent!! sheesh.
appreciate any advice on the above issues and my whole situation. i dont have 2 grand to throw at this boat right now. im scared to take her out again until i get this resolved.
Your cables most likely have corrosion in them causing high resistance. Resistance in a conductor creates heat. If you have enough cable length you can cut them back past the corrosion and have a new lug attached preferebly with the proper crimping tool. Also use a section of adhesive lined heat shrink to seal around the lug. If you find that they are not tin plated copper (silver colored wire) you may want to look into replacing entirely.
Hairball sounds right on…cut off the terminals and install new ones w/ di-elec grease on the wires, and heat shrink-wrap the new connections. The heat you are experiencing is located where the poor connection/corrosion is located. Also, if your main cables to the battery, or out to the engine have ever been spliced, they will probably need to be re-done at the same time.
Lastly, check connections at the starter for same issues, then you should be ready to go…Will probably find/fix the accy issues along the way.
Just to verify you do not have a ‘starter only’ issue…Which is a good idea. But, you had described some other issues, and said the starter is strong sometimes, then weak others…I would still bet on loose connections and corrosion prob’s.
yep, just as a quick, easy, and free test to verify the battery cables or some portion of them really are teh problem.
I am guessing that is exactly the problem, but I hate to fix things that really arent broken, then have to fix something else.
Thanks for the suggestions guys- I fixed all the terminal lugs, not hot anymore, but am still having an issue with the starter. When I turn the key ‘halfway’ into standby mode, I am supposed to get a loud warning beep, and see the warning lights in my tachometer light up before cranking. They are not doing this for some reason- and it feels like this is preventing the motor from turning over- some sort of kill switch if you will. Oddly enough, if you keep cranking the ignition for a few seconds, the BEEP will then sound, warning lights go, but then sputters out and motor still will not turn over. Is this an ignition problem, or still something going on with the batteries/wiring? THANKS!!!
I bet you have a bad ground on the motor end of your wiring harness. Push a little current at it, a little heat builds, an open closes, and magically, things beep and light up… if I had to guess…
